Loading DLLs at runtime in C#

Members must be resolvable at compile time to be called directly from C#. Otherwise you must use reflection or dynamic objects.

Reflection

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    using System;
    using System.Reflection;

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var DLL = Assembly.LoadFile(@"C:\visual studio 2012\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\DLL.dll");

            foreach(Type type in DLL.GetExportedTypes())
            {
                var c = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
                type.InvokeMember("Output", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, c, new object[] {@"Hello"});
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Dynamic (.NET 4.0)

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    using System;
    using System.Reflection;

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var DLL = Assembly.LoadFile(@"C:\visual studio 2012\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\DLL.dll");

            foreach(Type type in DLL.GetExportedTypes())
            {
                dynamic c = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
                c.Output(@"Hello");
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Right now, you're creating an instance of every type defined in the assembly. You only need to create a single instance of Class1 in order to call the method:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var DLL = Assembly.LoadFile(@"C:\visual studio 2012\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\DLL.dll");

        var theType = DLL.GetType("DLL.Class1");
        var c = Activator.CreateInstance(theType);
        var method = theType.GetMethod("Output");
        method.Invoke(c, new object[]{@"Hello"});

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

You need to create an instance of the type that expose the Output method:

static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var DLL = Assembly.LoadFile(@"C:\visual studio 2012\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\DLL.dll");

        var class1Type = DLL.GetType("DLL.Class1");

        //Now you can use reflection or dynamic to call the method. I will show you the dynamic way

        dynamic c = Activator.CreateInstance(class1Type);
        c.Output(@"Hello");

        Console.ReadLine();
     }

Tags:

C#

Reflection

Dll